VoiceToTextView source on GitHub

Meeting recording · macOS

Record & transcribe meetings
on your Mac. Free.

Capture your mic and the call’s system audio together — then get an on-device transcript. No bot in the meeting.

VoiceToText records Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, FaceTime, or any call playing through your Mac, keeps running in the background while you work, and transcribes everything locally on the Apple Neural Engine — saved to a searchable history.

Get it free — download for MacView source on GitHub

FreeOpen sourceNo meeting botOn-device

macOS 15 Sequoia+ · Apple Silicon (M1+) · Microphone and Screen Recording permission required.

How it captures the call

Both sides of the conversation — without a bot in the meeting.

Most meeting tools join your call as a participant. VoiceToText doesn’t. It records locally from macOS itself: your microphone plus the system audio coming out of your Mac, mixed into one recording.

Start a recording from the menu bar, then carry on. VoiceToText streams the audio straight to disk in the background — no RAM bloat, no window to babysit — and transcribes it on-device the moment you stop. It works with whatever is making sound:

  • Zoom
  • Google Meet
  • Microsoft Teams
  • FaceTime
  • Webex
  • Slack huddles
  • Discord
  • Any audio
00:00  Let's kick off the weekly sync.
00:05  Launch status — design is signed
       off, eng is on the last endpoint.
00:14  Any blockers before Friday?
00:19  None on my side. I'll send notes
       right after this call.
Recorded and transcribed on-device. Mic + system audio, saved to history.

Three steps

How to record a meeting on your Mac.

  • 01

    Start recording

    Hit record in the menu bar. The first time, macOS asks once for Microphone and Screen Recording — that's what lets VoiceToText hear you and capture system audio.

  • 02

    Keep working

    It records in the background, streaming straight to disk. Switch apps, take notes, share your screen — the recording keeps running with barely any footprint.

  • 03

    Stop → transcript

    Stop, and the recording is transcribed on-device and saved to your history — with the audio you can replay and a transcript you can copy.

What you get

A full meeting recorder, built into your dictation app.

No second subscription, no plugin in the call, no audio shipped to someone else’s server. Just a native menu-bar app that records, transcribes, and remembers — on your Mac.

  • Mic + system audio

    Records both directions at once through ScreenCaptureKit, so everyone on the call is captured — not just your side.

  • Private by default

    Local models transcribe the recording on your Mac. With a local engine, audio never leaves the device and there are zero network calls.

  • Searchable history

    Every recording is saved with its audio and transcript. Search it, play it back, copy it, favorite it, or delete it — all on-device.

  • Regenerate & compare

    Re-run the transcript with a more accurate model and keep both versions side by side, so you can pick the better one and drop the other.

  • Import a file

    Already have a recording? Drop in any audio or video file — VoiceToText extracts the audio and transcribes it the same way.

  • No bot, no subscription

    Nothing joins your call and nobody is billed per minute. Free and open source, with the source on GitHub to audit.

Permissions & privacy

Your meetings stay on your Mac.

Recording a conversation is sensitive, so VoiceToText keeps it local by default. Here is exactly what it needs and where your audio goes.

  • Microphone records your voice; Screen Recording is how macOS exposes system audio through ScreenCaptureKit. Accessibility is only used by dictation, not by meeting recording.
  • With a local model (Whisper or Parakeet on the Apple Neural Engine), the recording is transcribed entirely on your Mac and never leaves the device.
  • Cloud transcription is opt-in: only if you pick an OpenAI model is audio sent — directly to OpenAI under your own API key. VoiceToText is never in that path.
  • Recordings and transcripts live in Application Support on your Mac. Delete any of them anytime, right from the history.

FAQ

Recording meetings on Mac — common questions.

Can I record and transcribe meetings on my Mac for free?
Yes. VoiceToText is free and open source. It records a meeting or conversation on your Mac and transcribes it on-device — no subscription, no account, and no per-minute fees. The same app also does push-to-talk dictation into any text field.
Does it record the other participants, or just my microphone?
Both. VoiceToText captures your microphone and your Mac's system audio at the same time, so the people on the other end of a Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, FaceTime, Webex, or Discord call are recorded along with you. System-audio capture uses Apple's ScreenCaptureKit, so it works with any app that plays sound — no meeting-specific plugin or bot in the call.
Is meeting recording private? Does my audio stay on my Mac?
Yes. With a local model (Whisper or Parakeet on the Apple Neural Engine) the recording is transcribed entirely on-device and never leaves your Mac. The audio file and transcript are saved to a local history under Application Support. Cloud transcription is strictly opt-in: only if you choose an OpenAI model is audio sent — directly to OpenAI under your own API key.
Which permissions does meeting recording need?
Two: Microphone (to record your voice) and Screen Recording (which is how macOS exposes system audio through ScreenCaptureKit). Accessibility is only used by the dictation feature to type at the cursor and is not needed to record meetings. You grant these once in System Settings and can revoke them anytime.
Can I transcribe an existing audio or video file?
Yes. Open Conversations and choose Upload File to drop in an existing recording — audio or video, in any common format. VoiceToText extracts the audio track, transcribes it on-device, and saves it to your history alongside your live recordings.
Can I re-transcribe a recording with a more accurate model?
Yes. Every recording keeps its audio, so you can regenerate the transcript with a different engine — for example switch from fast on-device Parakeet to OpenAI GPT-4o Transcribe for a tricky recording. The new transcript becomes active and the previous one is kept as an alternate, so you can compare both and remove whichever you don't want.

Ready to record

Start recording your meetings — free.

One DMG, drag to Applications, grant Microphone and Screen Recording. Then record any call and get an on-device transcript.

Get it free — download the DMGSee all releases on GitHub

Free · Open source · macOS 15+ · Apple Silicon

Meeting recording needs macOS 15 Sequoia; push-to-talk dictation runs on macOS 14 Sonoma and up. See everything VoiceToText does →